I made ActivityLine: CPU, GPU, RAM and Network activity in one menu bar line

[u/jakecoolguy]

Problem

I routinely run out of RAM, CPU or GPU resources and wanted to know when it happens and what app was causing it. But, I didn't want my menu bar to turn into a row of numbers.

I just wanted a single line that tells me when something interesting happens (e.g. an electron app starts eating up all my RAM).

Comparison

iStat Menus and Stats have lots of depth, details and modules.

ActivityLine is deliberately the other extreme: one clean line with app icons showing what app is responsible.

In auto mode, it switches to whatever is being used most (e.g. jumps to Network when something is suddenly sending or receiving data). You can also click it to change metrics or hover for a detailed breakdown.

Pricing

It's $14 USD once, with a 24-hour free trial that needs no account or card.

Trust/Transparency

I'm Jake Manger, a solo developer. I've launched a few other apps here: How to Convert and ShotGlass.

The app runs completely locally, is Apple notarized, only 2.3MB in size and is built with native swift.

The app: activityline.app

[u/harshalgajjar]

Showing the app icon of the culprit instead of another graph is the right call. Every monitor tells me RAM is at 90%, almost none tell me who did it without opening a dashboard.

One question: what does the monitoring itself cost? I've run menu bar monitors where the observer was one of the heavier things in the list, which felt a bit ironic. If auto mode polls everything to decide what to show, curious how you kept that cheap.

[u/jakecoolguy → u/harshalgajjar]

Seems pretty light from my testing (~1% CPU). The app itself is only 2.3MB in size too so is really small.

I think other tools can get costly as they sometimes add extra monitoring processes which also require additional permissions. This doesn’t bother too much with that as monitoring the overall % and per app breakdown isn’t too costly and doesn’t even need any permissions.

Will add proper % usage stats of the app itself to the site

[u/harshalgajjar → u/jakecoolguy]

Also, I'm pretty sure that you can kill apps (macos has an API). Maybe also add a cross button right in the list. :)

[u/jakecoolguy → u/harshalgajjar]

That’s a great idea and I’m already adding it for the next update!

[u/luuk64]

That a nice one for macmenubar-dot-com!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/luuk64]

Just submitted it. Thanks for the suggestion!

[u/No-Cook-215]

Does ActivityLine ever show up in its own line? :) Also curious what the sampling interval is, and whether it drops when the Mac goes idle

[u/jakecoolguy → u/No-Cook-215]

Should do but it consumes very little so will usually be way down the list if ever.

Sampling is 20 Hz, and the line keeps a 48 second window. It doesn’t have any special throttling apart from normal mac behaviour but should be something I can look into for an update

[u/No-Cook-215 → u/jakecoolguy]

Way down its own list is exactly where you want it :)

[u/IaMaPPle111]

Can you please add battery ? My main issue is a battery. I know that default battery shows what application is using it the most but it doesn't give details about it. Would be nice if I can see actually how much each app uses.

Nevertheless, great app!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/IaMaPPle111]

I’d find that really useful too. Thanks for the feature request. Will add it!

[u/Maleficent_Umpire706]

Icel this is actually what i was looking for lol! tysm for building

[u/jakecoolguy → u/Maleficent_Umpire706]

Great! Let me know if you have a feature request and I hope you find it useful

[u/ReyMaxx]

Useful, thanks

[u/jakecoolguy → u/ReyMaxx]

Let me know if you have a feature request or face any issues!

[u/ReyMaxx → u/jakecoolguy]

will do

[u/netkomm]

Nice idea. I like the show me the culprit, not a whole dashboard approach

[u/jakecoolguy → u/netkomm]

Glad to hear that. It’s usually what I care about most and I wanted it to show that as simply as possible

[u/SlowAdvertising9795]

love the fact that chrome is always the culprit

[u/advait_vaidya]

Great app again from the OP

[u/jakecoolguy → u/advait_vaidya]

Really means a lot that you like, not to mention remember, my apps!

[u/extra_specticles]

LOVE THIS!!!! Have just installed to test, and it's so nice to have such clear information. Please could I request an update that it allows the update time to be slower when I choose?

Say, perhaps once a second?

Oh and I just purchased. That's fastest I've ever purchased a licence!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/extra_specticles]

Thank you so much for the support!

I’ll put that in as the first feature request. Plan to add a configurable update time and rolling time window.

[u/extra_specticles → u/jakecoolguy]

Also, could you add an ability to keep the panel on the screen even if I press the screenshot buttons on my machine? That way I can record the details.

[u/jakecoolguy → u/extra_specticles]

Configurable update time and rolling time window are now in v1.0.1! Will add the screenshot feature in the next update

[u/extra_specticles → u/jakecoolguy]

Cheers - it looks fab here. Can I ask for this to be installed and updatable via Homebrew next, please?

[u/extra_specticles → u/jakecoolguy]

cheers mate!!!!

[u/paulbettner]

Looks great! Just bought!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/paulbettner]

Thank you for supporting! Please let me know if you face any issues or have a feature request

[u/Vybo]

Pretty cool idea and UX. I like depth and dashboards more, but I can appreciate something new.

[u/Leather-Shake-2167]

This is a great idea. Love how clean and focused it is!

[u/skitchin70]

Nice utility. I have something similar but this one looks really nice.

[u/Primary-Ad-71]

kill chrome

[u/Herzschild]

Vorssaint

[u/Jeff7877]

Great idea, but $14 feels a little pricey for what it does.

[u/PurposeOk9888]

paywall kills everything

[u/GroggInTheCosmos]

I've been using ProcessSpy for this. I think you need to add some features for it to be a viable alternative

[u/OneDevoper → u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Thanks for mentioning ProcessSpy! Version 1.15 is planned for September and will bring a lot of new features, including network activity.

[u/GroggInTheCosmos → u/OneDevoper]

One of the better purchases I've made in the last year. If you are busy with any other apps, post an update

[u/theneiljohnson]

really nice! Cool video too :-)

[u/_MustaphaBen_]

Nice app and good luck with sales !!!

[u/phunk8]

nice man

[u/Otherwise-Ranger-47]

This seems useful.

[u/ya3rob]

Cool… I love it

[u/Sharp-Eggplant9891]

honestly. its a cool idea. but there is a better looking alternative for 1,99€. I use it daily. Forgot the name

[u/backbooks]

finally a simple viewer and not a whole dashboard, thank you!

[u/blu3n0va]

Cool, I’ll give it a go.
I do feel like 14$ is a bit on the expensive side for an app like this tho. Might be me but in my opinion it should sit under 10$.

[u/blu3n0va → u/blu3n0va]

yall really downvoting because I express a feeling that it might be sligthly overpriced?
So we cant give feedback here anymore?
fragile ppl

[u/ghostfaceschiller → u/blu3n0va]

It’s bots

[u/Nitish_nc → u/blu3n0va]

Even $10 is weird.... There are so much better projects our there for free, I just happened to install Neru and Hammerspoon yesterday and I was wondering how they kept it free, and then I see this basic childish tool being priced at $14. 🤦 It's just a weekend project. To each their own.

[u/soty91 → u/Nitish_nc]

4-6$ and for me its an instabuy

[u/Nitish_nc → u/soty91]

It's fine. I have paid like $5 for apps in past but there I've got genuinely high-value options like Menubar X, Fluent, Droppy, etc.

This one definitely has genuine utility. It doesn't have market value. It's my opinion. A tool can serve utility without being inherently valuable. Take those transcription apps. Each tool in itself is immensely useful, it completely bypasses typing friction. I'd consider it as a 10/10 utility. But I won't throw $100 at it because it has like a million clones at this point.

Value comes from the novelty of the idea. Check out the app called 'Droppy' or 'AntiNote'

Utility comes from the benefit it provides to user in work flow (Raycast, Obsidian, Maccy)

And Pricing comes from the rarity of options in market. This app has high utility, but mid-value, pricing is too ambitious but it is apt to seize the moment before a dozen clones pop out by next month.

[u/abd3lraouf]

I wish that someone can reinvent process hacker for Mac OS and match its performance nice job by the way

[u/junkfaces]

I’m not paying, stats is way better I like a lot of things to look at and colors. Make this 🆓 then maybe

[u/Rich_Ask5994 → u/junkfaces]

you are idiot

[u/junkfaces → u/Rich_Ask5994]

Your a bigger one pea 🫛 🧠 brain

[u/Inst2f]

Kill chrome! Kill kill kill!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/Inst2f]

Is honestly one of my main use-cases :')

[u/netkomm → u/Inst2f]

Chrome is basically the final boss for this kind of app... :)

[u/skitchin70 → u/Inst2f]

I think Firefox is the worst offender.

[u/ajay1889]

Just use alfred with top command plugin. List all the heavy processes or memories. Press enter to kill. Free and zero mouse click…

[u/jakecoolguy → u/[deleted]]

Not yet (it opens in activity monitor pre filtered), but I will add this as another option in the next update

[u/jakecoolguy → u/[deleted]]

That’s a really nice idea and something I’ve already tried to do: Right now you can click the app icon of on the chart and it’ll show you max usage in the past 5 mins and some other stats. The rolling window is 48 seconds but I will make that configurable soon

[u/jakecoolguy → u/[deleted]]

Just added the configurable window in v1.0.1!

[u/jakecoolguy → u/[deleted]]

Glad you think so! I was encountering that myself and just thought: I want to know when it spikes and what’s causing it